Bearded Iris & Mulch
Jtlehmann@aol.com (Sun, 25 Nov 2012 12:28:37 PST)

I do mulch my bearded iris. I use a ground pine bark mulch, applied at a
depth of about two inches in the spring, which disappears (breaks down &
blows away) by fall to a thin layer; by the following spring there is bare
soil.

My bearded iris are grown at my property south of where I live. They are
on a slight slope, in very thin soil, in the open. The bed is surrounded
by the native stones that came out of the bed. Without mulch, the soil
would be very dry and would blow away; the surface become very dust like.

They never receive supplemental irrigation outside of rain, except for new
individual plants at installation time.

Have you ever noticed at the garden centers in the spring, there are many
bearded iris available for sale in full bloom? And then suddenly they just
"disappear?" Look behind the store...they've all rotted being too deep
and too wet in "potting mix" and with poor garden center culture.

In-ground, especially in my situation, they do just fine with mulch. But
I do not have experience with leaves as mulch.

Also, deer do eat bearded iris. All winter they eat the foliage to mere
nubs (normally our winters are mild enough to keep the bearded iris
evergreen or at least partly so). They continue eating them until a more preferred
food greens-up in the spring. However, they continue to eat the flower
stalks as they emerge. Once the flowers are open, the deer seem to leave the
bearded iris alone, even the ones with fragrant flowers (unlike hyacinths
which they leave alone until the flowers open, I think it's the fragrance
the deer can't resist). The deer do sample the bearded iris flowers, like
they do daffodil flowers, but never really eat them. For both bearded iris
and daffodils, if I look long enough I can find the chewed flowers the deer
spit out.

--Jerry Lehmann

Olathe, KS, zone 5, but enjoying an unseasonable warm November afternoon
out yardening